Andrew WK – Party Hard

Who is Andrew WK? What is a song by Andrew WK? What the …. is this particular song? FUN, FUN and FUN. This song is fun to hear, fun to shout and fun to play! You’ll see, through this lesson, that this song is not that hard to play! So let’s check it out!

1. Introduction : play hard!

The only real ingredient you’ll need to play this song is energy! The chords are very basic : either you have powerchords or octaves. For powerchords, no difficulty. For octaves, use your index finger for the lowest note and the ring finger for the highest one. Your index finger will rest on the string which is in between and will therefore mute it. Not hard for the first part, it gets a little bit harder when you have to play with the pinky. Keep trying and training if you can’t do it, you’ll soon succeed.

2. Tablature

This tab is based on my cover available on youtube. It’s strictly personnal, not official. Of course you can share it, but please quote the blog address or the url of my youtube channel to motivate me! The next parts will give you some helps to play this cover. (Guitar Pro version available on demand)

In this song, the structure is very basic. It’s really interesting to notice that there is something missing if you compare to most of the songs. There is no bridge. After the first chorus, you repeat the song and simply make the last riff last longer before the final E chord. If you think about the process of composition, this choice is very interesting. Without any break, you go straight forward with a lot of power and energy towards the end of the song. It’s just like you couldn’t breathe. Power and energy that’s all!

4. Intro

After 8 bars of powerchords (played with the open E string to give more power), come octaves. As I said in introduction, octaves need a little bit of training to be played clearly. There is another real difficulty this time because these chords have to be played with dynamic : they are all introduced by a slight slide so you have to be very careful and aim the fret you want to reach. If you’re a beginner, there is a tip I ncan give you : your eyes have to look at what’s coming next. If you want to reach the 14th fret for example, do not follow the path of the slide with your eyes, look at the 14th fret and your fingers will reach it.

This part of the song is tricky for another reason. The first part of the riff is played on A and G strings (measures 3 to 6), index finger + ring finger. Then come the high pitched ending played on D and B strings (measure 6) or G and high E strings (measure 7). This time you have to play with the index finger and the pinky due to standard tuning (octave are 3 frets away). It’s very tricky, really.

5. Verses

ENERGY and POWER! that’s all you need to play this part! Only composed with powerchords (one exception though I’ll explain it), this riff is pretty easy to play and sounds soooooooo good! The only difference in this riff is that chord you can find measure 11 (4-7-x-x-x-x). This chord is a kind of transition, not a powerchord which would not sound good here, nor a lonely note which wouldn’t be powerful enough. Not really easy to find out by ear (if you’re not used to) but good news, you have the transcription!

One small difficulty can be however noticed measure 13 and measure 17. You’ll have to be very quyick and clean to reach the notes/chords that are played in the middle of the neck. For beginners, use the same technique as for octaves : look at where you want to go, your fingers will reach it.

6. Pre Chorus

A single string riff! Very fun to play, this riffs has a very original sound because of the « cuts » that are not that logical. These cuts are these notes that end each segment of the riff and which are played with a downwards slide to the open string. The first one is a C played on the 8th fret, then comes an E played 12th fret and last a A played on 5th fret. This riff is in fact simply a Minor E scale played on the Low E string.

7. Chorus

No problem here! Power chords, just a small slide on the E string between 4th and 5th fret. You can also play a full powerchord if you want it works too. Be careful with the transition between the end of the riff and the octaves, it’s not as easy as it seems, work slowly first!

8. Conclusion

I trully hope I helped you to learn this song. Feel free to give feedback!

If you have any question, feel free to contact me through comments and I will adapt the article according to your needs. I also remind you that the tab is made according to my personnal arrangement, please quote the blog address if you want to share it!